UFC brass: British MMA far from dead, local talent not required for expansion

http://mmajunkie.comLONDON – Aside from a last-minute save by main-event winner Michael Bisping, Saturday’s UFC 120 card in London wasn’t exactly a shining moment for British MMA.

Three of the country’s biggest stars – Dan Hardy, John Hathaway and “The Ultimate Fighter 9″ winner James Wilks – were easily defeated by their American counterparts in high-profile main-card bouts at The O2.

But UFC president Dana White said the results won’t do anything to hurt the growth of the UFC in the U.K.

In fact, he said the sport flourishes with or without regional talent.

“Obviously, when you hit England and there are English guys on the card, there’s a lot of patriotism,” White said. “But it’s not really about what country you’re from.”

That’s why, White said, the UFC will continue to grow and flourish in the U.K.

And, of course, there are no plans for slowing down. Granted, the U.K. hosted just one UFC event this year (down from three in 2008 and two in 2009). But this past week, UFC U.K. head Marshall Zelaznik confirmed that more are coming in 2011, including possible UFC Fight Night-type shows that will focus more on regional talent. He even told MMAjunkie.com (www.mmajunkie.com) that fans can’t count out the possibility of a title fight taking place in the U.K. or other overseas markets.

And, as White explains, you don’t necessarily need local talent to produce such major shows. In fact, UFC fans have an international roster of fighters from which they can pick their favorites.

“No matter what parts of the world we’re in, no matter what country you’re from, some guys win, and some guys lose,” White said. “I always say (UFC welterweight champion) Georges St-Pierre is from Canada, and he’ll come down to the United States and fight a guy from the U.S., and more people will cheer for him.

“B.J. Penn fought here (in the U.K.), and people went crazy for him. It doesn’t matter what country you’re from. It’s about the type of fighter you are and whether people like you.”

In fact, among the nine shows the UFC has hosted in the U.K. since Zuffa purchased the organization in 2001, just two (22 percent) have been headlined by a U.K. fighter (though six of nine had a local competitor in a co-headliner). And though White admits that success from a local star can help, it’s not vital to the organization’s operations.

In other words, even if it had been a complete wash for the British fighters (which it wasn’t, since preliminary-card competitors Paul Sass and Rob Broughton also dazzled at UFC 120), there’s no reason to panic.

“Fans … want to see Dan Hardy and Michael Bisping and Hathaway and these guys win, but when they don’t, I don’t think it’s like, ‘Oh [expletive], we’re never going to another UFC event because the English guys didn’t win,” he said.

White said it’s sometimes easy to lose sight of that fact. It’s easy to look at a single event or a single country and forget the bigger picture.

Just look north of the U.S. border, White said.

“Think about this: Two Brazilians fought in Montreal, and the place was packed and rocking,” said White, referring to a UFC 97 headliner between Anderson Silva and Thales Leites. “That was the main event, two Brazilians. Two Brazilians fought in Los Angeles, and the place was rocking.

“When you think about it, we’ve taken the whole fight business to a whole other level. You’d never put on a fight with two Brazilians in Montreal. It’s insane. It’d never work. But it does with this sport.”

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